William Somerset Maugham

Summary of chapter 41 • This is the concluding chapter of the novel’s first part, where the narrator and Strickland confront each other—the narrator confronting Strickland over the havoc[r]

William Somerset Maugham The moon and sixpence About the Author • W S Maugham (25 Dec 1874- 16 Dec 1965) • A famous English writer: a novelist, playwright, and short story writer • with awful childhood • His mother – a writer Edith Mary née Snell (1840-1882) and his father Robert Ormond Maugham (18231884), a lawyer for the British Embassy • Became a qualified doctor but devoted his life to literature • been to Spain, Russia, America, Africa and Asia to seek materials for his books About the Author  • • • • • Essential Facts Although of British descent, Maugham was born in Paris To prevent Maugham from being drafted into the military under French law, Maugham’s father arranged for his son to be born on British Embassy grounds Despite his gift with language on the page, Maugham suffered from a severe stutter throughout his life Maugham was one of the “Literary Ambulance Drivers” of World War I The moniker was a slang term for the unusually high number of literary greats (such as Ernest Hemingway and E E Cummings) who served as ambulance drivers during the war Maugham briefly did intelligence work at the end of the First World War The written account of his experiences was highly influential on Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond For half a decade, Maugham studied medicine Though the experience would continue to influence his writing for the rest of his life, it was particularly crucial to his first and highly successful novel, Liza of Lambeth About the Author • W S Maugham wrote 24 plays, 19 novels, and a large number of short stories • He is primarily a writer of short story and novel which are characterized by narrative facility, simplicity of style, and disillusioned and ionic point of view • His important novels: “Liza of Lambeth” (1897), “Of Human Bondage” (1915), “The Moon and Sixpence” (1919), “The Painted Veil” (1925), “Cakes and Ale” (1930), “Razor’s Edge” (1944) About the Author • As a short story writer, Maugham demonstrates brilliant mastery of the form He exposes the contemporary society and its vices such as snobbishness, money worship, pretence, self- interest, complacency and above all, the hypocrisy in the people’s way of life He publishes more than ten collections of short stories “Rain and Other Stories” is known far and wide Plot summary (the novel) • The novel is written largely from the point of view of the narrator, who is first introduced to the character of Strickland through his (Strickland's) wife and strikes him (the narrator) as unremarkable Certain chapters are entirely composed of the stories or narrations of others which the narrator himself is recalling from memory (selectively editing or elaborating on certain aspects of dialogue, particularly Strickland's, as Strickland is said by the narrator to be limited in his use of verbiage and tended to use gestures in his expression) Plot summary Strickland, a well-off, middle-class stock broker in London some time in the late 19th or the first half of the 20th century Early in the novel, he leaves his wife and children and goes to Paris, living a destitute but defiantly content life there as an artist (specifically a painter), lodging in run-down hotels and falling prey to both illness and hunger Strickland, in his drive to express through his art what appears to continually possess and compel him inside, cares nothing for physical comfort and is generally ignorant to his surroundings, but is generously supported while in Paris by a commercially successful yet unexceptional Dutch painter, Dirk Stroeve, a friend of the narrator's, who immediately recognizes Strickland's genius Plot summary After helping Strickland recover from a lifethreatening condition, Stroeve is repaid by having his wife, Blanche, abandon him for Strickland Strickland later discards the wife (all he really sought from Blanche was a model to paint, not serious companionship, and it is hinted in the novel's dialogue that he indicated this to her and she took the risk anyway), who then commits suicide - yet another human casualty (the first ones being his own established life and those of his wife and children) in Strickland's single-minded pursuit of Art and Beauty Plot summary After the Paris episode, the story continues in Tahiti Strickland has already died, and the narrator attempts to piece together his life there from the recollections of others He finds that Strickland had taken up with a native woman, had at least one child by her (only a son is directly referenced) and started painting profusely We learn that Strickland had settled for a short while in the French port of Marseilles before traveling to Tahiti, where he lived for a few years before finally dying of leprosy Strickland left behind numerous paintings, but his magnum opus, which he painted on the walls of his hut in a half-crazed state of leprosy-induced blindness, was burnt down after his death by his wife by his dying orders Summary of chapter 41 • This is the concluding chapter of the novel’s first part, where the narrator and Strickland confront each other—the narrator confronting Strickland over the havoc he has wracked in the Stroeves’ lives (in the end, Blanche Stroeve kills herself by drinking acid) and Strickland confronting the narrator with his harsh and friendless vision of the world • To the friend’s surprise, Strickland doesn’t show any regrets for what he did to ruin Dirk’s family, nor does he think that he is the reason for Blanche’s death Summary of chapter 41 • By talking to the writer, the friend learns to know that it is Blanche who came and voluntarily want to paint a nude; that she is so foolish and unbalanced to commit suicide that way; and that she had spent hard life with an unexpected baby when being seduced by another man before meeting and marrying Stroeve Through the two men’s conversation and after a lot of their quarrel, Strickland is known to be a real artist who doesn’t care for any other things, or for what other people or think about him but only for his pictures and the possibility to complete his pictures Analysis of the chapter • Content: + Maugham’s own motivation for creating Strickland: an abnormal man in both actions and thinkings + (quotation 1) Analysis of the chapter + This passion for the process of creation and disregard for the created is one of most essential artistic sensibilities ” I had noticed in it something more than passion “ Analysis of the chapter • “He’s a very bad painter.” “But a very good man.” Can’t one be both? And isn’t this one of the core questions the novel seems to be asking? Is it possible to be a good painter and a good man—an artist and a human being? Analysis of the chapter • “I don’t want love I haven’t time for it It’s weakness I am a man, and sometimes I want a woman When I’ve satisfied my passion I’m ready for other things I can’t overcome my desire, but I hate it; it imprisons my spirit; I look forward to the time when I shall be free from all desire and can give myself without hindrance to my work It is a battle, this dedicated pursuit of art Even while the artist is pursuing it, the baser elements of his nature continue to drag him back down to earth In pursuing his art, the artist is, in fact, rebelling against his own nature Analysis of the chapter • “Because women can nothing except love, they’ve given it a ridiculous importance They want to persuade us that it’s the whole of life It’s an insignificant part I know that That’s normal and healthy Love is a disease Women are the instruments of my pleasure; I have no patience with their claim to be helpmates, partners, companions.” But doesn’t this passage obscure the true conflict? It is, after all, within Strickland, not between him and the world Does not even Strickland see that? Analysis of the chapter • quotation 2.doc • And here Maugham brings together the internal and external tensions he has been weaving together throughout the novel Strickland himself doesn’t fully realize that the struggle is within him To a certain extent he has externalized it onto his wife, Blanche, and all women But read the above highlighted section as if “she” was a metaphor for Strickland’s earthly desire That is the “she” that truly imprisons him Analysis of the chapter • “He spoke as though I were a child that needed to be distracted I was sore, but not with him so much as with myself I thought of the happy life that pair had led in the cosy studio in Montmartre, Stroeve and his wife, their simplicity, kindness, and hospitality; it seemed to me cruel that it should have been broken to pieces by a ruthless chance; but the cruellest thing of all was that in fact it made no great difference The world went on, and no one was a penny worse for all that wretchedness I had an idea that Dirk, a man of greater emotional reactions than depth of feeling, would soon forget; and Blanche’s life, begun with who knows what bright hopes and what dreams, might just as well have never been lived It all seemed useless and inane.” Whose side is our narrator on? He is an artist after all And so is Maugham But Strickland is right He hasn’t the courage of his convictions Does that mean he will never be great? Analysis of the chapter • quotation 4.doc • Maugham is wrestling with something really big here, and this is an amazing chapter in which the elements of his story enmesh perfectly with his theme It is a story—an interplay between two characters on a page—but at the same time it is a deep exploration of what makes great art great, and the kind of sacrifices the artist must make if he is to achieve it But it is not a polemic The theme is the story and the story is the theme It really blows us away The recognition of Strickland’s inner struggle is a kind of learning experience for our narrator To his eyes, as all good fiction does for the reader, Strickland’s behavior reveals both the depths and heights of the human experience; and as a result he is better able to diagnose the baser motivations of others Analysis of the chapter Conclusion • The great success that Maugham has from the story is his ability to give an interesting description of Strickland’s strange escape, of his viewpoints on love and career of such a ridiculous and abnormal man However, such a man could also represents many of the men’s unhappy fates in the whole world, that is such men with their vain desires are never sympathized by the society, especially by their most relatives Questions and suggestions What is the subject matter of the novel?  It is the conflict between the artist and the conventional society The artist possesses nothing but a great will to art, so powerful his spirit is that he could give up anything to paint However, all his effort doesn’t fit the usual conventions of the present society where the values of men are measured in terms of money Questions and suggestions What is your impression of the character as revealed in the chapter?  An artist of great spirit: willing to give up everything including love to paint; nothing is thought to be important but painting, even “women are the instruments of my pleasure”; have no use for the opinions of others even when he is seriously criticized by his friends including the narrator for causing the death of Blanche  An abnormal man who doesn’t want love and has no interest in women: “She had a wonderful body…I took no more interest in her”, and whose opinions sometimes make others puzzled Questions and suggestions What are the ways the author used to portray the character of Strickland? Illustrate your ideas  An indifferent and stubborn man who tries to things in his own ways: the way he never gives a glance at the narrator’s room and the way he sits down on the only chair that has no arm  A callous and inhuman friend who causes the break of a family whose husband used to help him and who indirectly causes the death of the wife who crazily falls in love with him Worst of all, it seems to make little difference to him that Blanche is dead or Dirk is kind and helpful to him as “that is his life” and “she was a foolish and unbalanced woman”, etc  An artist with real passion and who looks down on love, beauty, and women’s desire Questions and suggestions   How you understand the title of the novel? The Moon here represents the idealistic realm of Art and Beauty which Strickland pursue abandoning his wife and children The Moon also indicates something far and too difficult to reach, so a metaphor of the difficulties Strickland has to overcome to become a real genuine while the Sixpence represents human relationships and the ordinary pleasures of life which are far different from the art that Strickland has been longing for In The Moon and Sixpence, Maugham chronicles the life and adventures of Paul Gauguin — an artistic genius who stepped outside the bounds of ethics and morality in a single-minded pursuit of an unknown and troubling vision of his soul (“the moon”) at the cruel expense of his friends and family (the “sixpence,” presumably.) Thank you!